By almost any statistical evaluation, the Giants rate as the best team in the National Football League. Tucked snugly into their 4-0 record is numerical domination that can’t be denied. Coming off a Super Bowl triumph, the Giants are proving that they were neither flukes nor fortunate.

Many precincts are reporting in and are heaping praise on the Giants. The other day, former NFL coach Steve Mariucci said the Giants are the elite team in the league.

“The Giants are dominating like the New England Patriots did last year,” Mariucci said on the NFL Network.

Power rankings are cropping up, and the Giants, after a steady rise, top many of the lists.

“We just laugh at it because they are the same people that two months ago were saying the Giants weren’t going to be the best team in the NFC, wouldn’t even get into the playoffs,” linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “For us, we could care less what they say, either way, good or bad. We’re not trying to get respect in September, going into early October. For us it’s about getting respect come late December, early January, early February.”

The respect the Giants garnered last January and February was grudging, and the playoff run was characterized as more magical than indicative of a budding powerhouse. Heading into Monday night’s game in Cleveland against the 1-3 Browns, the Giants at the quarter pole of their season are tearing up the league. They have outscored their opponents by 78 points. The Titans, the other unbeaten team, are next at plus-59.

Once considered a defensive team with a susceptible offense, the Giants under Eli Manning’s orchestration are flying high. They are first in the NFL in five significant categories, including points per game (31.8), yards per game (431) and first downs per game (24.2).

“We’re doing more things with this offense,” said Manning, who is off to the best start of his career with a rating of 99.7, fifth highest in the league. “Last year it was hard to really expand with the offense, with Plaxico [Burress] not practicing, Steve Smith was hurt, we were kind of short on numbers a little bit. This year we feel the receiver spot is one of our strongest positions. We feel we have five guys who can get in the game and play. That’s helped our offense expand and be more versatile.”

The defense has stepped forward, not backward, despite the losses of Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora. The Giants are second in the league in points allowed (12.2 per game) and passing yards allowed (154 per game) and third in yards allowed (236 per game). They also are first in pass attempts per sack (one every 9.3 attempts).

“What we’ve done on defense is guys have been very aggressive, guys have been in the right spots, guys are doing a good job studying film, knowing what the offense is going to do to us and then we’re doing a great job adjusting on the fly,” Pierce said. “We just want to be a bad-ass defense. It ain’t about being the No. 1 ranked defense or giving up the least amount of points, it’s about going out there and being dominant, intimidating and doing what the Giants defenses of the past have done.”

A new challenge for the Giants is coming to grips with all the accolades and playing a season from ahead, which is not their norm. After all, it’s nice to hear you’re the best.

“Well, we react to it the same way we reacted when people said we were just lucky last year or we weren’t very good,” Manning said. “We can’t buy into it. We can’t buy into it when they’re praising us or when they’re dogging us. We have to believe in ourselves and know what we’ve done to be in this position.”